Islamic Manuscript Collections in Conflict Zones

Islamic Manuscript Collections in Conflict Zones: Safeguarding Written Heritage
5–7 October 2015, Royal United Services Institute, London, UK

The Islamic Manuscript Association in partnership with the Royal United Services Institute is pleased to announce a short course entitled Islamic Manuscript Collections in Conflict Zones: Safeguarding Written Heritage, which will be hosted by the Royal United Services Institute at its premises in Whitehall, London on 5–7 October 2015.

Presented with the support of the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation and Harvard University, this intensive three-day programme will introduce the concepts and mechanisms that underpin cultural property protection (and destruction) in the present day and educate participants in best practices of managing, protecting, and preserving manuscript collections at risk. Case studies will examine incidents of manuscript and book destruction in Bosnia, Iraq, Libya, and Mali, while presentations and roundtables will survey the legal aspects of and military involvement in cultural property protection, the destruction of memory, and the way forward. Topics covered will include the 1954 Hague Convention; military operational planning processes; prosecuting cultural property crimes; developing and implementing no-strike lists; iconoclasm and the erasure of cultural memory; and looting and the trafficking of cultural artefacts.

For more information, click here.